Interview with Author Rich Zahradnik

Today, Feathered Quill reviewer Ellen Feld is talking with Rich Zahradnik, author of Drop Dead Punk: Coleridge Taylor Mystery

FQ: I understand the setting of New York City but why choose the 1975 financial crisis as the story’s backdrop? What drew you to it from a writer’s point of view?

ZAHRADNIK: It all started when I set the first book of the series in March of 1975 because I wanted a time period before the typical tech tropes of today’s mysteries: CSI-instant DNA typing, facial recognition software that works in seconds, video-camera coverage everywhere, cell phones. That novel occurs right as the Vietnam War is ending—as opposed to when the U.S. pulled out—something I wanted to play off of. I decided the next time period for a book in the series should be the financial crisis seven months later, as there are several nice parallels between New York’s near bankruptcy and the financial crisis we’ve recently come through. Ratings agencies ignored warning signals and maintained ratings on bonds. Banks kept lending money because they wanted the fees. Lies were told.

FQ: You spent over 30 years as a reporter. What sort of news did you cover? Was there a deep-seated desire to be a crime reporter (or perhaps you were)?

ZAHRADNIK: I covered local news for newspapers in Westchester County, including one I owned, and it was there that I did some police reporting, though I can’t claim to have done a great deal of it. I actually started out wanting to be a political reporter. That never happened. After local newspapers, my career moved into business journalism and Internet news sites. I also did some work in cable news. Taylor has far more crime reporting experience than I do, and in many ways, is a better reporter than I ever was because of his single-minded focus. Other things distracted me. Building web sites. Soccer. Writing fiction.

Author Rich Zahradnik

FQ: As I mentioned in the review, I found Callahan’s struggles to prove herself to her fellow officers quite interesting. Any insight into what made a woman want to join the force back in the 70s? Did they have to be tougher than their male counterparts?

ZAHRADNIK: In Samantha’s case, I think it was because of her father and a subconscious understanding the times were changing. She’s not (yet) a table-banging feminist. I don’t have a deep insight beyond that except that as a teenager during that period I was well aware that women were pushing into many different jobs where they had not worked and were not at all welcome. Like Samantha, they had to be far tougher than their male counterparts because they were doing a difficult job and weren’t welcomed by the men. Who had their backs? This continued for a lot of years.

FQ: As soon as we learn that Johnny Mort was a dog lover who helped Alphabet City’s homeless dogs, it was hard to not like him and feel bad for him. Was this why you added the dog lover aspect to Mort’s character?

ZAHRADNIK: It did make him a sympathetic character. I needed Taylor to quickly find a small piece of evidence from his contacts that would make him question the police assumptions about the shooting. So really this is a case where a plot need drove character (though that’s not always the case, nor should it be).

FQ: “Talk to the dead cop’s wife” was something Taylor knew to do from years of experience. Was this something you knew from your reporter career or simply an idea you had? It seems too perfect a concept not to have come from somewhere.

ZAHRADNIK: I think a good reporter would always try and get to the nearest relative, particularly if there are questions about how and why someone died. The problem is the interview usually is the trite and terrible: “How do you feel now that your loved one is dead?” In cases of questionable death, you have to figure the spouse may have something that will help in the case.

FQ: There’s a lot in the book about the police culture in New York. How did you research this?

ZAHRADNIK: Living in and around New York and watching police work helped a lot. For the corruption angle in the book, I read Serpico, which is the non-fiction book on the topic. I also read Fort Apache: New York’s Most Violent Precinct, which it was during the mid-seventies. And some of the culture comes from my imagination.

FQ: The characters of Rayban and Sally were my favorites. Were they based on anyone or entirely made up?

ZAHRADNIK: Totally made up, though I suppose as composites of many street people I’ve seen from the time I started visiting the city as a teen in the mid-seventies.

FQ: Are you still working as a reporter or did you leave that life behind to write mysteries?

ZAHRADNIK: I’m writing novels full time now.

FQ: I understand you now work with elementary school children and teach them about putting together newspapers. What is it like working with a younger crowd?

ZAHRADNIK: It’s great fun and a tonic for a fiction writer. Many a Thursday during the past four years, the kids turned a bummer of a novel-writing morning into the best day of my week with their ideas, enthusiasm and energy. One kid smiling at coming up with the interview, the lead or the great story idea was it all it took. They were enthusiastic about everything we’d try to do, which made a change from most newsrooms I’d worked in.

FQ: What’s next for Coleridge Taylor? Would you give our readers a peek into his next case?

ZAHRADNIK: The next book is set during the days around July 4, 1976, when the Bicentennial was celebrated in New York City with Operation Sail, a parade of 16 tall sailing ships and hundreds of smaller vessels through New York Harbor and up the Hudson River. Taylor will be covering this because he has to, but he’ll also be chasing a murder that appears linked to a drug war after a body is pulled from the harbor on the eve of the festivities. It’s titled A Black Sail, but that could change.

Last Words, now available in paperback and all ebook formats, won honorable mention for mystery in Foreword Reviews' IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. Visit www.richzahradnik.com

To learn more about Drop Dead Punk: Coleridge Taylor Mystery please read the review at: Feathered Quill Book Reviews.

Book Review - Drop Dead Punk

Drop Dead Punk: Coleridge Taylor Mystery

By: Rich Zahradnik
Publisher: Camel Press
Publication Date: August 2015
ISBN: 978-1603812092
Reviewed by: Ellen Feld
Review Date: July 3, 2015

It’s 1975 and the place is New York City. It’s a time when the city, fraught with financial woes, is fighting for its very survival. It’s also a time when Coleridge Taylor, a crime reporter at the struggling Messenger-Telegram newspaper, is about to be thrown, head first, into the biggest case of his career.

As the story opens, we meet Taylor, a seasoned crime reporter who is a bit bored at the moment. It seems all anyone is talking about is the impending bankruptcy of New York and the fact that President Ford told the City to “Drop Dead.” However, that’s the last thing Taylor wants to talk about. Can you say ‘boring’ with a capital B? Alas, it seems to be a slow news day for New York’s criminals so Taylor’s boss sends him to City Hall to report on the Mayor’s response to Ford. On the way out, he calls one of his contacts at 1 Police Plaza. Jackpot! A shooting with two dead, one a cop.
Taylor hustles to the scene of the crime and fortunately, is the first reporter to arrive. He is able to view the crime scene where he finds a young mugger and a cop, both dead. But something isn’t right. The position of the bodies and the gunshot wounds just don’t add up. Taylor’s sleuthing instincts go into high gear as he starts to dig deeper into the shooting. The dead mugger, Johnny Mort, was well liked and repeatedly described as gentle with an intense interest in helping stray dogs. Mort sure doesn’t fit the mold of the typical mugger. Add in the fact that the dead cop’s partner, Samantha Callahan, is being accused of abandoning her partner while she insists she was misled by the police radio, and you have one growing mystery. Was it a simple mugging gone bad or is there a cover-up at 1 Police Plaza? Taylor doesn’t know but he sure is going to find out, if it’s the last thing he does...

Drop Dead Punk is the second book in the Coleridge Taylor Mystery series and you definitely do not have to read the first to get sucked into this story. One recent rainy afternoon, I started reading and planned to just read a few chapters to get started. I wound up skipping dinner so I could finish the story as I needed to find out ‘who dunnit.’ There were plenty of twists and turns and unexpected connections (pay attention!) that are the cornerstones of a good crime mystery. The author’s description of the gritty world that was New York in the 70s, as well as his research into the near bankruptcy of New York in 1975 was spot on and really added to the character of the story. Callahan’s struggle with being one of the first woman cops in New York comes up repeatedly and gives the reader great insight into what must have been a very difficult time for women on the force. Add in the author’s real-life experiences as a reporter for over 30 years that seep through the pages, and you have a definite winner. I thoroughly enjoyed Drop Dead Punk and look forward to the next book in this new series.

Quill says: If you like a quick reading crime mystery that will keep you guessing, check out Drop Dead Punk. You won’t be disappointed!

For more information on Drop Dead Punk: Coleridge Taylor Mystery, please visit the author's website at: www.richzahradnik.com

Books In For Review

Check 'um out!  Here's a sampling of the books that have just arrived for review.  Stop by in a few weeks to read the reviews!




The Wrong Man by Kate White Finn couldn't be tamer in her personal life. While on vacation in the Florida Keys, Kit resolves to do something risky for once. When she literally bumps into a charming stranger at her hotel, she decides to make good on her promise and act on her attraction. But back in New York, when Kit arrives at his luxury apartment ready to pick up where they left off in the Keys, she doesn't recognize the man standing on the other side of the door. Was this a cruel joke or part of something truly sinister? Kit soon realizes that she's been thrown into a treacherous plot, which is both deeper and deadlier than she could have ever imagined. Now the only way to protect herself, her business, and the people she loves is to find out the true identity of the man who has turned her life upside down.  

Drop Dead Punk: A Coleridge Taylor Mystery by Rich Zahradnik Coleridge Taylor is searching for his next scoop on the police beat. The Messenger-Telegram reporter has a lot to choose from on the crime-ridden streets of New York City in 1975. One story outside his beat is grabbing all the front page glory: New York teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, and President Ford just told the city, as the Daily News so aptly puts it, "Drop Dead." Taylor's situation is nearly as desperate. His home is a borrowed dry-docked houseboat, his newspaper may also be on the way out, and his drunk father keeps getting arrested. A source sends Taylor down to Alphabet City, hang-out of the punks who gravitate to the rock club CBGB. There he finds the bloody fallout from a mugging. Two dead bodies: a punk named Johnny Mort and a cop named Robert Dodd. Each looks too messed up to have killed the other. Taylor starts asking around. The punk was a good kid, the peace-loving guardian angel of the neighborhood's stray dogs. What led him to mug a woman at gunpoint? And why is Officer Samantha Callahan being accused of leaving her partner to die, even though she insists the police radio misled her? It's hard enough being a female in the NYPD only five years after women were assigned to patrol. Now the department wants to throw her to the wolves. That's not going to happen, not if Taylor can help it. As he falls for Samantha--a beautiful, dedicated second-generation cop--he realizes he's too close to his story. Officer Callahan is a target, and Taylor's standing between her and some mighty big guns.  

A Lady of Good Family by Jeanne Mackin Raised among wealth and privilege during America’s fabled Gilded Age, a niece of famous novelist Edith Wharton and a friend to literary great Henry James, Beatrix Farrand is expected to marry, and marry well. But as a young woman traveling through Europe with her mother and aunt, she already knows that gardens are her true passion. How this highborn woman with unconventional views escapes the dictates of society to become the most celebrated female landscape designer in the country is the story of her unique determination to create beauty and serenity while remaining true to herself. Beatrix’s journey begins at the age of twenty-three in the Borghese Gardens of Rome, where she meets beguiling Amerigo Massimo, an Italian gentleman of sensitivity and charm—a man unlike any she has known before...  

Beyond Suspicion by Catherine A. Winn Her mom’s remarriage has been hard on fifteen year old Shelby. Roger is strict and treats her like a child. At least they’re letting her go to her first boy-girl party. That is until she gets home from school and finds that Roger has changed his mind—he wants Shelby to babysit her year-old brother Josh. It’s so unfair! Fuming, Shelby takes Josh in his stroller to the park. After all, it’s not his fault. Someone sets off fireworks, distracting Shelby. When she turns around—Josh is gone. Shelby tells the police she’s seen a white van cruising the neighborhood lately, and she thinks she saw it at the park as well. But to her horror, the police are not interested: Pointing to angry texts to her girlfriends about getting back at Roger, they accuse her of causing Josh’s disappearance! The police focus on the woods around the park, driving Shelby wild with fear and anger that the kidnappers will get away. With TV reporters all over the front yard, Shelby sneaks out the back to find her brother, any way she can. So begins Shelby’s race against time—and against a world that has turned on her. And yet she finds help along the way. There’s mysterious Matt, who says he wants to help, but doesn’t seem to want anyone to know it. And there’s Jess, who watches out for Shelby as, against the odds, she tracks down the kidnappers down just as they are leaving town.  

The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward For generations, the Bradford family has worn the mantle of kings of the bourbon capital of the world. Their sustained wealth has afforded them prestige and privilege—as well as a hard-won division of class on their sprawling estate, Easterly. Upstairs, a dynasty that by all appearances plays by the rules of good fortune and good taste. Downstairs, the staff who work tirelessly to maintain the impeccable Bradford facade. And never the twain shall meet. For Lizzie King, Easterly’s head gardener, crossing that divide nearly ruined her life. Falling in love with Tulane, the prodigal son of the bourbon dynasty, was nothing that she intended or wanted—and their bitter breakup only served to prove her instincts were right. Now, after two years of staying away, Tulane is finally coming home again, and he is bringing the past with him. No one will be left unmarked: not Tulane’s beautiful and ruthless wife; not his older brother, whose bitterness and bad blood know no bounds; and especially not the ironfisted Bradford patriarch, a man with few morals, fewer scruples, and many, many terrible secrets. As family tensions—professional and intimately private—ignite, Easterly and all its inhabitants are thrown into the grips of an irrevocable transformation, and only the cunning will survive.  

Weightless by Sarah Bannan When Carolyn Lessing moves from New Jersey to Alabama with her mother, she rattles the status quo of the juniors at Adams High. Gorgeous, stylish, a great student and gifted athlete without a mean girl bone in her body Carolyn is gobbled up right away by the school's cliques. She even begins dating a senior, Shane, whose on again/off again girlfriend Brooke becomes Carolyn's bitter romantic rival. When a make-out video of Carolyn and Shane makes the rounds, Carolyn goes from golden girl to slut in an instant, with Brooke and her best friend responsible for the campaign. Carolyn is hounded and focused on, and becomes more and more private. Questions about her family and her habits torture her. But a violent confrontation with Shane and Brooke in the student parking lot is the last attack Carolyn can take.